Bobby Zimmerman (and I) lived through the closure of the natural ore mines of the Vermilion, Mesabi, and Cayuna ranges. It was always boom and bust, but beginning in the early 60's, it was over. Yes, he left and I left, but not always because we wanted to. About a third of my high school class moved back after retirement--would have come sooner, but no jobs. For many of our parents, this was to have been the land of promise. They left home once, to come thousands of miles to a place they couldn't speak the language. Can you really blame them for not wanting to pull up stakes again? And not because the ore was gone, but because Big Steel didn't want to pay them a living wage.
Bobby Zimmerman (and I) lived through the closure of the natural ore mines of the Vermilion, Mesabi, and Cayuna ranges. It was always boom and bust, but beginning in the early 60's, it was over. Yes, he left and I left, but not always because we wanted to. About a third of my high school class moved back after retirement--would have come sooner, but no jobs. For many of our parents, this was to have been the land of promise. They left home once, to come thousands of miles to a place they couldn't speak the language. Can you really blame them for not wanting to pull up stakes again? And not because the ore was gone, but because Big Steel didn't want to pay them a living wage.